It takes two!
Each of the following descriptions applies to two different answers. Identify both answers described in each case.
1 This city, located in a US state that borders Mexico, has a Spanish-derived name. A song whose title enquires about the way to this city made the UK top 10.
2 The name of this country can be formed by adding the suffix “ia” to the five-letter first name of the author of a German-language stage work in which the title character, a soldier, murders Marie, the mother of his child, after discovering her relationship with a drum major.
3 This literary classic, included in Robert McCrum’s list of the 100 Greatest Novels of All Time for the Observer, is known by a two-word title which includes the surname of its protagonist, though it was originally published under a longer title. The last five letters of the protagonist’s surname spell out the name of a bodily organ.
4 This US president, who has a state capital named after him, served two full terms. His predecessor, Adams, refused to attend his inauguration.
5 This word, which you may associate with a classic BBC comedy set during wartime, may be preceded by “Steer” to make the name of a charming but manipulative character created by a British author who first appears as a teenager and who, years later, meets his death in water.
6 This man was part of a comedy double act who starred in an eponymous sketch show. In the 2010s, this man made his feature directorial debut with a critically acclaimed film combining elements of comedy and horror, whose star, a British actor of African heritage, went on to land a role in a big-budget franchise distributed by Disney.
7 This American band, which was ranked inside the Top 50 of VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, was formed in the late 1980s and is still active today. The band’s three-word name contains 13 letters in total, all of which appear in the word “Chileans”.
8 This London-born politician, who has a degree in history, supported the UK remaining in the EU in the run-up to the 2016 referendum. She shares her surname with a man who became prime minister of Australia in 2013.
Wordsearch poem
In this poem, find 14 units of length. They may be found forwards or backwards, separated by spaces, line breaks or punctuation. Each unit of length is at least four letters long.
I’m forever tempting guests to see my ship, the Grand Guignol.
Ruffled in chill winds, the sail flutters, skittish, in the vessel.
I make them wait with eyes shut tight, then leap out from a hole
In the costume of a hydra, yelling, “Time to have a wrestle!”
Seasick Nile crocodiles reciting Benjamin Zephaniah
Can ask Nicole (a guest I buckled to the tall ship’s mast)
If a Thompson submachine gun now produces rapid fire.
Like Voldemort’s gnashing teeth, a thousand bullets fly too fast!
Add the bird
In this round, identify each pair of answers from their definitions. The second of each pair is spelt identically to the first except that it contains the name of a bird. For instance, one pair could be “misled” and “mistitled”, as they are spelt identically except that “mistitled” contains “tit”.
1 Total amount and breastbone.
2 Anger and the process of turning and shaking a champagne bottle so the sediment can be removed.
3 The first name of a man appointed England Test cricket captain in 2022 and lament.
4 A shrub which “bears the crown” and in an insincere way.
5 The surname of an Italian who has managed Chelsea and break.
6 The surname of a country singer-songwriter and a temple dedicated to Athena.
7 A decorative fabric and the surname of a campaigner who founded a charity named after her late son.
8 A winged insect and a knight who returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake.
Palindrome
The eight answers to this round form a palindrome – put together and considered as a single string of letters (disregarding spaces, punctuation and capitals), they will read the same forwards and backwards.
1 Which word for a people or their language derives from a Tewa word that means “large field”? The people call themselves “Diné” – “the people”.
2 Which team sport was invented in Uruguay by the teacher Juan Carlos Ceriani and was originally intended to be played on a basketball court?
3 Which word fills the blank space in this quotation from Christopher Hitchens? “I once heard Susan Sontag, in conversation with Umberto Eco, define the _____ as one ‘who is interested in everything, and in nothing else.’”
4 Which past participle is found in the names of a period of US history, whose name derives from a novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, also used as the title of a TV series created by Julian Fellowes, and one of the “Big Four” venue operators at the Edinburgh fringe (along with Pleasance, Assembly and Underbelly)?
5 A five-letter word meaning “villain” or “tough guy hired for protection”; the four-letter surname of a Carrington Institute agent who is the protagonist of a video game series; a phrase meaning “offended” which consists of two three-letter words: all of these are also opposites of which word?
6 What name is given to a type of colourless plastid found in plant cells which forms and stores starch?
7 What name is shared by a film in which Roy “Chubby” Brown is abducted by aliens, a Gerry and Sylvia Anderson TV series following the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization, and (pronounced differently) a club at which Pink Floyd and the Soft Machine regularly played?
8 Which name of a grandson of Noah is spelt identically to a word that may be followed by “rhinoceros” to make a species whose only viable population resides at Ujung Kulon national park?
No repeats!
Here, you must not use the same word more than once over the eight answers (even short ones such as “of”). Each question other than the first appears to have multiple possible answers, but there is only one perfect solution.
1 Which two words precede “the Lost” in the title of a novel by Morrissey that won the Bad Sex in Fiction award owing to a notorious passage including the phrase “bulbous salutation”, as well as filling the blank space in this quotation from Rudyard Kipling: “I’ve just read that I am dead. Don’t forget to delete me from your _____ subscribers”?
2 Jane Austen’s novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published after her death. Name one of the four novels she published in her lifetime.
3 Name one of Simon and Garfunkel’s three Billboard No 1 hit singles in the US.
4 Name the stadium of a men’s football team beginning with C which currently plays in the Premier League. (That is to say, the team, not the stadium, begins with C.)
5 Name a country whose short-form name consists of multiple words and whose capital city begins with the letter K. (By “short-form name” I mean, for instance, “Afghanistan” rather than “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”.)
6 Name a film directed by Steven Spielberg that was released after 1989’s Always, but before 1997’s Amistad.
7 The author of the 1922 novel Jacob’s Room penned three works subtitled A Biography. The subjects of two of these are Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s dog and Roger Fry, while the other is a novel whose title character lives for centuries. Name both the author and any novel she wrote that has not been mentioned or alluded to in this question. (Separate your answers with a semi-colon so you can avoid using the word “and”.)
8 Name a British women’s singles champion at Wimbledon or the US Open, since the Open Era started in 1968.
Printer’s devilry
Each sentence below can be completed by inserting a string of consecutive letters, as well as spaces and punctuation if necessary. These strings of letters (if spaces and punctuation are disregarded) spell out the names of seven major cities in Asia. Eg, “I have always hoped to have another encounter with Theodor, a gentlest met on a ski lift” could be changed to, “I have always hoped to have another encounter with Theodor, a gentleman I last met on a ski lift”, giving the answer Manila. Identify the cities.
1 No sooner had the waitress at the Austrian cafe yelled, “Food fight!” than a strut me right in the face.
2 My favourite footballer is Luka Modrić; what a joy it is to watch the little Croaking past defenders.
3 The young man paid £10,000 for a small rock covered with lively believing it to be the stone that had inspired Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone.
4 The hotel staff seem to know when I want to take a nap and always choose that moment to pussy trolley up and down the corridor outside, and I can’t hear myself think for the sound of rattling and squeaking wheels.
5 The criminals could not decide between an armed robbery of a bid on a jewellery shop and a carjacking, and eventually stayed home and played Scrabble.
6 I was outraged to discover that the tour manager expected my bandmate and me to travel from Belfast to Lifford by train, and roared, “Get us the most luxurious two lister has ever seen!”
7 The TV critic underwent an existential crisis, becoming convinced everything she reviewed was fleeting, meaningless and swiftly forgotten, and she eventually retired after writing a review of an EastEnders episode in which she repeatedly called Danny Descent.
Answers
It takes two!
1 Amarillo and San Jose (Is This the Way to) Amarillo by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield was a No 1 for Tony Christie ft Peter Kay; Do You Know the Way to San Jose by Burt Bacharach and Hal David was a No 8 for Dionne Warwick.
2 Georgia and Albania Georg Büchner, the author of the play Woyzeck, adapted by Alban Berg into the opera Wozzeck.
3 Madame Bovary and Gulliver’s Travels Originally published as Madame Bovary: Mœurs de province (Provincial Manners); Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships.
4 Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson Jefferson City, Missouri; Jackson, Mississippi, who were preceded by John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams respectively.
5 Forth and Pike James Steerforth in David Copperfield; Steerpike in Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan and Gormenghast.
6 Jordan Peele and Joe Cornish Half of Key & Peele and director of Get Out, with Daniel Kaluuya (W’Kabi in Black Panther); half of Adam and Joe, and director of Attack the Block, with John Boyega (Finn in the Star Wars prequels).
7 Alice in Chains and Nine Inch Nails.
8 Amber Rudd and Diane Abbott Kevin Rudd served two non-consecutive terms as Australian prime minister, with his second term beginning and ending in 2013; he was succeeded by Tony Abbott.
Wordsearch poem
1 Metre (forever tempting)
2 Furlong (Guignol./Ruffled)
3 Inch (in chill)
4 Mile (vessel./I make)
5 Yard (hydra, yelling)
6 Link (Seasick Nile)
7 Chain (Zephaniah/Can)
8 League (Nicole (a guest)
9 Cubit (guest I buckled)
10 Fathom (If a Thompson)
11 Parsec (produces rapid)
12 Angstrom (Voldemort’s gnashing)
13 Thou (thousand)
14 Foot (too fast!)
Add the bird
1 Sum and sternum
2 Rage and remuage
3 Ben and bemoan (Ben Stokes)
4 Holly and hollowly (The Holly and the Ivy)
5 Conte and contravene (Antonio Conte)
6 Parton and Parthenon (Dolly Parton)
7 Lace and Lawrence (Doreen Lawrence, founder of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, later renamed Blueprint for All, and the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation)
8 Bee and Bedivere
Palindrome
1 Navajo
2 Futsal
3 Polymath
4 Gilded (The Gilded Age, The Gilded Balloon)
5 Light (heavy; Dark – Joanna Dark in the Perfect Dark series; put out)
6 Amyloplast
7 UFO
8 Javan
Alternatively: Navajofutsalpolymathgildedlightamyloplastufojavan
No repeats!
1 List of
2 Emma The others are Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park
3 Bridge Over Troubled Water The others are The Sound of Silence and Mrs Robinson
4 Selhurst Park The other is Stamford Bridge
5 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines The other is the Democratic Republic of the Congo
6 Hook The others are Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and The Lost World: Jurassic Park
7 Virginia Woolf; Mrs Dalloway The others are The Voyage Out, Night and Day, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, The Years and Between the Acts
8 Ann Jones, otherwise known as Ann Haydon-Jones. The others are Virginia Wade and Emma Raducanu
Printer’s devilry
1 Delhi (strudel hit)
2 Tianjin (Croatian jinking)
3 Chennai (lichen naively)
4 Hanoi (push a noisy)
5 Ankara (bank, a raid)
6 Mosul (limos Ulster)
7 Yerevan (Dyer evanescent)
